When Hiroyuki Morioka, a junior samurai stationed at the lower pass of the Satri Ridge, was sitting idly in the shade of a tree on the side to rest, the soldiers stationed on the road suddenly shouted at him in a panic, and it seemed that there was some movement on the road to the east.

The drowsy Hiroyuki Morioka suddenly had a thrill and was completely awake. While ordering his lieutenant to signal to the mountain, he ordered his subordinates to assemble, and one of them hurriedly put on his hat and rushed towards the road, trying to see how many troops were in the attack.

Hiroyuki Morioka also complained in his heart in the midst of the chaos, obviously the rumors in Sunfu Castle have been tending to peace recently, and he said that he would strike and reconcile with the Edo army, why did the shogunate send people for no reason. Hiroyuki Morioka's heart is also constantly beating drums, 200 people under the mountain, 300 people on the mountain, among these 500 people, there are only 150 soldiers who have participated in more than one battle, and the others are all recruits who go to the battlefield for the first time, God knows how many people can hold back when they fight.

However, when Hiroyuki Morioka stopped on the road and looked into the distance, he noticed that although a man and a horse were approaching from the east, it did not look like an attacking army.

Thanks to the fact that the Tokaido is close to the sea, although it is a dirt road, the loess covered by the road still retains a certain amount of moisture, and the team is not running in the distance, so the marching team does not carry much smoke and dust. Hiroyuki Morioka quickly saw the whole picture of this team, which looked more like a team that relied on the travel of a daimyo, perhaps a higher specification than the travel of the daimyo, Hiroyuki Morioka constantly adjusted his judgment.

Soon, the team of hundreds of people walked in front of the pass set up by the Suruga soldiers, although it was a pass, it was actually just a few simple checkpoints in the middle of the road.

The guide cavalry wearing the Aoi no Miki coat quickly rode his horse to a stop before the rejection, and the cavalryman scolded Hiroyuki Morioka and the others who were in a daze behind the rejection: "Didn't you see the banner of His Royal Highness the Great Imperial Palace? If you don't move away and refuse the horse, do you want to be rude to His Royal Highness? ”

Morioka Hiroyuki, who was standing behind the rejection horse, suddenly lost his mind, if it was in the past, he naturally would not dare to stop in front of the Great Imperial Palace team, and even took his subordinates to kneel down on the side of the road and sent the Great Imperial Palace team away. But now the head of his family seems to be hostile to the shogunate, and the relationship between the two sides no longer seems to be master-slave.

However, he quickly reacted again, and it seemed that it was the Shogun who raised troops to oppose His Highness, not His Royal Highness. Even in these days, His Royal Highness and His Royal Highness Tadashi exchanged letters frequently, and God knows if their father and son have been reconciled. In this case, it seemed that he had to give way.

Hiroyuki Morioka completely lost his ability to make decisions, and even though the cavalry on the opposite side was urging, he also blushed and didn't say a word. The chief officer is still like this, and Morioka Hiroyuki's subordinates are even more lax, and the defensive formation that was originally standing on the road is now staggering, and it seems that it will disperse in the next moment.

Seeing Hiroyuki Morioka so pustuple, the shouting cavalry, who was still a little nervous, suddenly became emboldened, not only reprimanding these Suruga soldiers loudly, but also dismounted and moved the rejected horse in front of him to the side of the road with his colleagues.

When Hiroyuki Morioka was hesitating whether to stop the other party, Mori Mori Mamoyama, who was stationed at the top of the Satri Ridge, hurriedly ran down the mountain, and he scolded Morioka Hiroyuki to quickly remove the rejection horse, and ran towards the opposite team as if the wind was blowing. And no one stopped him from the soldiers in front of the shogunate's honor guard, so they put him in front of the palanquin in the middle of the line.

Morioka Yuyuki saw Shangguan running to the sedan chair and kneeling on the ground, talking to the big man in the sedan chair, and suddenly lost the last bit of persistence in his heart. Since Shangguan has made a decision, he just does it. Hiroyuki Morioka, who breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly put down the handle of the sword that was pressing on his waist, turned around and shouted at his subordinates to move forward and sweep the road, and respectfully invite the team of the Great Imperial Palace to cross the border with the etiquette of the general.

Tokugawa Hidetada, who opened a gap in the sedan chair and talked to Mieda Morimasa, watched the Suruga soldiers in front of him move away and reject the horse, and finally said to Mieda Morimasa in front of him with a smile: "I still know your loyalty to the Tokugawa family. In the past, when you were a petty surname by my side, you were known for being cautious. It was precisely because I took a fancy to you that I asked you to serve by the side of the Loyal Chief, but I didn't expect that the Loyal Chief would actually do such a rebellious thing, which would have affected you. ”

Saneda Shouchang pressed his hands on the ground, lowered his body very low, almost to the ground, and replied to Tokugawa Hidetada: "It's all the ministers who have no virtue to stop His Highness Tadashi." The great palace can forgive the ministers and others, and the ministers don't know how to speak, where can they dare to say that His Royal Highness is not.

It's just that the ministers haven't been able to convince His Highness to turn back, so the Great Palace will come in person, isn't it too risky? ”

Tokugawa Hidetada said disapprenously: "Why, is it that the rebel son of Tadashi dares to disagree with me, or are you loyal ministers of the Tokugawa family no longer able to control the situation in Sunfu Castle?" ”

Mieda Morimasa immediately distinguished himself and said, "Except for a small number of people such as Torii Seiji, most of the people such as Asakura Nobumasa, Naito Masakishi, and the minister are willing to fight to the death to ensure the safety of His Royal Highness. It's just that although the power in the hands of Torii Seiji is not enough to fear, His Highness still has the force of the Matsuno Wing in his hands, which is beyond the control of the ministers. This force only obeyed the orders of His Highness, and the minister was worried that after the Great Imperial Palace entered Junfu Castle, he would be offended by this force. ”

Tokugawa Hidetada smiled and said: "You don't have to worry about this, although the Matsuno United is very capable of fighting, but across the walls of Junfu City, there is nothing that can be done." When I see the loyal chief, let this rebel change his ways, and this chaos will be over. Is Toki Yatai stationed in Xingjin Castle, and I will go to see him on the way, and then let him accompany me to Sunfu Castle, so you don't have to worry..."

While the Great Imperial Palace's team was heading towards Sunpu Castle, Tokugawa Tadanaga was practicing archery in Ninomaru's shooting range. Dressed in a beautiful deerskin armor, he was holding a large bow taller than his height and aiming at a straw target 60 paces away, slowly pulling the bowstring with force, while using his breath to clear the distractions from his mind.

Japan, which lacks high-toughness wood and animal tendons, can only increase the length of the bow arm to increase the bow power, and in order to facilitate shooting, the upper part of the Japanese bow is twice as large as the lower part, which makes the trajectory of the Japanese bow extremely strange, and it is impossible to use the Japanese bow correctly to shoot the target without years of practice.

This also makes it difficult for ordinary samurai to hire an archery teacher for themselves, and it is difficult for them to prepare a good bow suitable for their own use. The asymmetrical Japanese bow made it difficult for samurai of different heights and arm lengths to exert their full power.

The large bow used by Tokugawa Tadanaga was naturally a three-book bow tire bow specially made for him by a kyudo master, and the production process alone took nearly two years. Tokugawa Tadanaga, who studied under the archery of the Imperial Hiki Ryujutoku faction, far surpassed his brother Iemitsu in the art of archery with bows and arrows, otherwise no one would have told him about the crime of shooting the monkeys inside the shrine.

However, just when Tokugawa Tadanaga finally eliminated the distractions and was about to release the strings, his little surname Kohama Nanosuke suddenly came over in a hurry, and he couldn't stop shouting: "Your Highness is not good, it is not good." ”

The frightened Tokugawa Tadanaga still missed the arrow, and looked at the arrow that landed diagonally on the ground in front of the target, and Tadanaga suddenly frowned. In order to avoid those retainers persuading him to make peace with the Great Imperial Palace, he came to the shooting range to clean up, but he didn't expect to be disturbed again, which made him suddenly have a nameless fire in his heart.

Tadacho handed the big bow in his hand to the little surname who was waiting on the side, and he turned to Kohama Nanosuke and asked unhappily, "What happened?" What's wrong? ”

Nanosuke Kohama took a breath and said, "His Royal Highness's team has arrived at the east gate of Sunfu Castle, and Lord Asakura has asked His Highness to discuss..."

Tadacho was taken aback suddenly, he immediately stepped forward, grabbed Kohama Nanosuke's shoulders with both hands, and asked with a pale face, "Father arrived at the east gate with the team, how many people did he bring over?" Why didn't Sanzhi Shouchang and Toki Yatai stop him, even if they couldn't stop him, they should have sent someone to send a message back, what a bastard..."

Kohama Nanosuke realized that his words seemed to have misunderstood something, so he quickly explained: "Your Highness, His Royal Highness did not bring the army over, it was just an ordinary travel team, and it was Toki Yasui who led the team to send His Royal Highness the Great Imperial Palace to the castle..."

After a long time, the chief realized that his father did not come here with an army. He immediately kicked Kohama Nanosuke out, and scolded in his mouth: "You can't even pass a word well, what can you do?" Since my father didn't bring troops to attack me, what's wrong with it, bastard. ”

After Tadacho reprimanded Kohama Nananosuke, he said to the small surnames on the left and right: "Go back with me to change your clothes, you bastard go and tell Asakura to bring the Lord of the Great Imperial Palace into the city, and the servants of His Royal Highness the Great Imperial Palace will be arranged outside the city, and let Toki Yatai take care of them." Daisuke Muto, you go to Mt. Kuno and transfer Nobumoto Matsuura to the Honmaru guard..."

Daisuke Muto, who was holding the big bow for Tadanaga, agreed, handed the big bow to the others, and walked outside with Nanosuke Kohama, who was rubbing his chest.

Nobumoto Matsuura and Kenichi Numata, who were stationed on Mt. Kuno, watched everything that was happening at the bottom of the mountain with a telescope. Due to the escort of the Toki Yatai Division, it was a little difficult for the two of them to confirm what kind of mission Yamashita had to carry on this team with the Aoi no Mi pattern.

When the soldiers they sent down the mountain heard that this was the Grand Imperial Palace personally arrived at Sunfu Castle, it seemed that the intention was to make peace between His Royal Highness Chungō and the Shogun.

Matsuura Nobumoto and Numata Kenichi both found it a little incredulous, although the shogunate had stopped attacking and only kept sending messengers to Sunfu, but they did not think that in this state, Tadanaga could turn back.

The others are just that, most of them are genealogical retainers of the Tokugawa family, they are the people of the mountains and fields of Suruga and Kai, and they were specially recruited by Tadashi to rebel. If Tadashi surrendered to the Great Imperial Palace, the others might be fine, but they had no foundation and killed a lot of soldiers of the shogunate army, so it was hard to guarantee that they would not be treated as scapegoats.

Matsuura Nobumoto subconsciously wanted to retreat to the port, but Numata Kanichi persuaded him and said, "Wait a minute, His Royal Highness Tadashi may not be so stupid to obey the persuasion of the Great Imperial Palace." Those who rise up against the army and take the initiative to lay down their arms will not have a good end.

The Great Imperial Palace ventured to come here, but it was actually a good opportunity. If His Royal Highness Tadacho can transfer us into the castle and take control of the Great Imperial Palace, we will be able to fight against Edo in the name of the Great Imperial Palace in the future. How did the Ming Kingdom say it, this is called coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes..."